This invention relates to an analog electronic timepiece which is designed to provide a time display in the same manner as a conventional watch or clock which uses short and long hands to designate hours and minutes respectively.
Most conventional electronic timepieces directly display time in the form of numerals. This method of display is convenient for merely reading the time, but a time display by hands as in a conventional analog timepiece is more suitable for intuitively reading the time interval from the current time to a certain time. From this point of view, it has been proposed heretofore that electronic timepieces employ the same method of display as that using hands.
In one form of analog electronic timepiece, heretofore proposed, a display element disposed on an extension line of another display element, and at a distance therefrom, is used to provide a short hand display to designate hours, and both display elements are simultaneously selected to provide a long hand display to display minutes. In this known arrangement, the long hand display is not produced as one continuous line, i.e., the long hand display is discontinuous, and hence is likely to cause misinterpretation. In another known form of analog electronic timepiece, the short and long hand displays are provided by using entirely different display elements, and a large number of display elements is accordingly required which introduces much difficulty in the manufacture of the timepiece. Further, these known analog electronic timepieces provide a minutes and hours display alone, and do not provide a seconds display. However, electronic timepieces, in particular those employing a crystal oscillator, are very accurate and lend themselves to the producing of an accurate seconds display.
An object of this invention is to provide an analog electronic timepiece which employs a small number of display elements, and which is capable of providing a long hand display in the form of one continuous line.
Another object of this invention is to provide an analog electronic timepiece which is capable of providing a seconds display in addition to the hours and minutes display, and which achieves these displays with a small number of display elements.